1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to geographical information distribution, and, more particularly, to a geographical information distribution system that distributes geographical information by which a location of service (accommodations, shopping, entertainment, and the like) of search objects (accommodation facilities, shops, theaters, and the like) is displayed on a map shown through a communication network. The present invention also relates to a method of specifying the contents of a service provided by a geographical information distribution system and a method of distributing geographical information. The present invention further relates to a server that distributes geographical information and a server that provides user services.
It should be noted that, in this specification, the xe2x80x9cgeographical information distribution systemxe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9cgeographical information distribution methodxe2x80x9d include the method of specifying the contents of a service, the server that distributes geographical information, and the server that provides user services.
2. Description of the Related Art
It is a well known method for the locations of shops and the like to be displayed on a map through the Internet, and for information concerning these places to be obtained. With this conventional method, however, objects displayed on the map include all the registered objects, and it is difficult to identify requested information on the map.
Also, the conventional geographical information providing service only displays objects selected by a service user, as well as advertisement information stored by a geographical information distributor, on a map selected by the service user. In this service, information concerning the objects selected by the service user may be stored in a server as log data. However, the above information stored in the server is not effectively utilized by the information suppliers, i.e., the geographical information distributor and the advertiser.
A general object of the present invention is to provide geographical information distribution systems and methods in which the above disadvantages are eliminated.
A more specific object of the present invention is to provide a geographical information distribution system and a method of distributing geographical information, in which only the information of search objects registered by a search object publisher that has made a request for geographical information is distributed and displayed on a map.
Another specific object of the present invention is to provide a geographical information distribution system and a method of distributing geographical information, in which identification information (the ID of each individual search object) of search objects on a map selected by a service user is dynamically transmitted to the search object publisher, so that the search object publisher can immeidately move on to the next service based on the ID of the selected search object.
The above objects of the present invention are achieved by a geographical information distribution system and a method of distributing geographical information, in which a server of a geographical information distributor connected to a communication network includes a map database that stores map data, a search object database that stores data of search objects to be displayed on a map, and a search map generation unit.
In response to a request from a service user through a server of a search object publisher that has registered the search object data, the above server of the geographical information distributor generates and supplies a search map to the service user, using the map data and the search object data. If the service user then selects one of the search objects displayed on the search map, the identification information of the selected search object is transmitted to the search object publisher.
Further, in accordance with the present invention, the geographical information distributor keeps base maps separately from search object data. The search object publisher makes a connection directly to a positional coordinate registration system of the geographical information distributor, so that the information of the search objects to be displayed on a map can be updated. A map search and distribution system turns positional information of the search object data, which is character data, into icons to be incorporated into the map data. Thus, as soon as the search object publisher updates the information in the search object database, the updated contents can be reflected in the service.
In accordance with the present invention, an initial screen image display request is transmitted through a search object publisher, so that which search object publisher is involved in the process is recognized in the geographic information distribution system. To distribute geographical information, only the search objects registered by the relevant search object publisher are retrieved from the search object database, and are then incorporated into the map to be distributed. Thus, the map having the relevant search objects incorporated therein can be displayed.
Furthermore, in accordance with the present invention, an item ID is allocated to each of the search objects when the search objects are stored, so that each search object selected by the service user can be accurately identified. The ID of each search object selected by the service user is recognized by the geographical information distributor, and is transmitted to the search object publisher through program processing.